#appreview :: RoomScan

Say goodbye to slaving over a site for hours taking back-breaking measurements and subsequent back-breaking CAD drafting: let your iPhone do all the work! Room Scan by Locometric is a brilliant new free app designed to create floor plans just by walking around a room.

The app has a couple of easy-to-follow directions. All you do is touch your iPhone on each wall of the room you’re documenting, and Room Scan does the rest! Within minutes, you have a single-line floor plan created using your iPhone’s proximity sensor. Room Scan Pro, which costs ₹300, completes the drawing with doors and windows. We’re still in the process of figuring out how to indicate openings correctly. The app also photographs you taking measurements, for future reference of where exactly you had touched your phone to a wall.

We tried Room Scan on both the iPhone and iPad mini, and it’s easier to use on the iPhone, because of the phone’s size and portability. We would recommend that this app, though fairly accurate, should not relied on exclusively. Instead, use it along with a tape measure to verify the measurements. In case of errors and discrepancies, the floor plan is quickly editable in the app itself.

The best part is that the output can be exported in many formats, including .dwf and .pdf files, emailed or sent to Dropbox, with or without detailed dimensions. At the moment, Room Scan is only available for iOS.

More than professionals, Room Scan would be relevant and useful to laypersons in creating floor plans with zero technical knowhow, providing a set of nearly-accurate existing conditions drawings for renovation or interior design projects. This way, even if an architect is remote and not physically around to survey the site, and blueprints of existing buildings are unavailable, homeowners can do a quick survey themselves and send the drawings to the architect, making everyone’s job much faster and easier.